Sister Leah Hodson has been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She has been assigned to the Nagoya, Japan mission. This is an account (as posted by her family) of her mission.

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Monday, February 3, 2014

I spent most of P-Day writing over-due letters. 31 in total! My hand hurt by the end. We showed up at our investigators's house without an appointment and were able to talk with her. She's worried about various things, ranging from her kids' school to her apartment to whether or not God is listening. We promised her that He was.

Tue

We get a text from this investigator saying that she got an A on her report for her license renewal. She said that it must have been because of God and because of prayer. Yay! Confirmation of prayers! We went to one member who is suffering a lot from morning sickness and helped clean her house and keep her company. Then we went out to a member who we have never visited before. Because we were out and about, we stopped by a convini for lunch. I bought what I thought was a dark chocolate ice cream bar to find out it was a coffee chocolate ice cream bar. Why is it that these things seem to be happening often lately? I guess I'll have to stick to things I know are ok and not try new things. We got a hold of a former investigator. She said that the Catholic church had a better image to her than our church because it had been around for longer. Plus, you can go and come as you please and there aren't people who are trying to get all in your business. I wonder if she actually goes to a Catholic church or if this is just the image she has of it.

Wed

We met with a member who asked us how she can bear her testimony better to her friends. I love it when members have conversations like that with us. She also said that she wants to befriend one of our investigators so please let her meet the members. I was also so happy to hear the member say that she wanted to get to know our investigator. Yay for member missionary work!

Thu

We helped one member straighten up her house because her mom recently entered a nursing home. When we got there, she was like before we work, let's eat and talk about missionary work. We gladly accepted. She made lasagna! She talked about the people in the ward that could use visits from the members and what the ward's spiritual goals were for the year. I was very happy to have this kind of conversation because the members know the ward so much better than we do, so they know what to do and who to say it to. Then she offered us some blankets since she has extra. I was happy to accept because we need extra ones for times when other sister missionaries stay at our apartment for meetings and such.

Fri

Interviews with the Mission President! I was there most of the day because the sister training leaders had a meeting with the zone leaders and assistants afterwards. Then we had a companion exchange with the Yokkaichi sisters. Since it was the 31st, we began our companion exchange by going to Baskin' Robbins and doing planning there. I got 31 love, a mint ice cream with lemon marshmallows. Not recommended. Our appointment canceled, so we decided to eat dinner and then visit investigators without an appointment. We ring one person's door and she says, yeah come in and let's have dinner together! So she made us egg sushi. It was good, but it was also our second dinner, so we couldn't eat very much.

Sat

We had a new family come to kid's eikaiwa. I really hope that the population of kids gets big enough so we can split it into older and younger because it is hard to teach a class that is oriented to both eight and four year olds. Then we went to visit investigators and members. On the way there, we met this one lady who said that she wanted to meet with us again because she had forgotten most of her English. I hope that we can meet with her again. Then, when we went on our way again, a man just fell over as he was walking in front of me. I slammed on my brakes so as not to run over him. He said that he was fine, his legs were just acting funny. Once he rested a bit he could keep going. So we hesitantly left. One member was home, but it was hard to talk because the bushes in front of her apartment were being trimmed by a power saw. As we were going back, the man who fell was gone. We spotted him down the street a little ways so when we caught up with him again, I expressed my relief that he was ok. We talked for a little bit and invited him to listen to the lessons. He said no, but he was nice. Sister Stremcha and I went back to the train station to switch back from our companion exchange. We arrived a little early, so we went to a nearby crepe shop and both bought blueberry cream chesse crepes. Sister Hansen and I get to the apartment to find that...our keys are missing. I take everything out of my bag and they are not in there. We go down to our bikes and I check the basket, not there. We walk along the street to our appointment's house (which we had traveled earlier) looking for the keys. Not there. So we called the honbu and they said that they would be there in 30-40 min with a spare key. In the mean time, we kept trawling the street looking for the keys. I kept hoping that they wouldn't have been picked up by someone and taken someplace else or kicked by a bike into a drain. The honbu missionaries deliver the key. By the end of the day, no keys found.

Sun

One member asked how our bikes were doing. I said that the spokes on my back tire were kinda bad so he kindly tightened them up for me. After church was done, we went back to the train station from the night before and asked if any keys had been turned in. No such luck. So we went about our day's plans. We stopped by a less active's house. She wasn't home, but her daughter was. Her daughter let us in and we had a long discussion about God and the purpose to life and motivations. We asked if it would be ok to come back and have this kind of conversation again, but she said no. We intend to go back anyway. We visited one less active, not home, so we go back to our bikes and start packing up. I felt like we should knock on doors at the apartment complex next door. So we did. No one home. As we get back to our bikes, I put my bag full of pamphlets and Books of Mormon in my bike basket. It seemed to jingle. I picked it back up and lo and behold the keys were in my bag. The unspectacular version of this story is I should have checked my dendo bag more thoroughly and we found it because we had used it. The spectacular version of this story is I followed a prompting and Heavenly Father answered my prayers in a miraculous way.

Mon

There was a festival at a nearby shrine. See pictures. I bought a skewer from the man giving a thumbs up. Very delicious. I wish I could send you the video I took, it's pretty cool.